Mbembe’s “Necropolitics” (notes)

Achille Mbembe (1957 – ), a prominent postcolonial theorist, was born in Cameroon and studied history and political science in Paris, France. He is currently a senior researcher at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research in Johannesburg, South Africa, serves as contributing editor of Public Culture (in which he published “Necropolitics”), and is an annual visiting faculty member of Duke University’s English department. What follows are my notes on “Necropolitics” [with my questions/comments in brackets].